


Who Rescues the Rescuers?

by dancingcrane



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-15
Updated: 2015-10-15
Packaged: 2018-04-26 12:01:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5004055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dancingcrane/pseuds/dancingcrane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How did Kaidan Alenko leave Horizon under his own power, anyway?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Who Rescues the Rescuers?

Shepard heard the familiar heavy boot falls of a man ready to leave a hole in whatever stood in his way. She'd been counting down silently, expecting him. Knowing why.

 "You gotta let me go down, Commander. Ah wasn't there for Mindoir, Ah wasn't there for y' when - y' know." The man scrubbed the back of his neck, still not able to say it, still in disbelief on how he could've lost her twice, and gained the same. How long could that luck hold? "Here now, Ah dinnae need to babysit the ship - na when -"

 "Chief, you can't take my place -" She wondered for a moment how high those brows _could_ go.

 "Take yer- as if ah coulda! I mean go with! No progress on towers, nah no comm! If there's a malfunction, y"ll need a fix - "

 "Right now I need you in that shuttle."

 "Aye, m'am!"

 There wasn't margin for error, nor for small talk on the way down. Shepard took the time to lean in close to the bulky-armored man.

 "I know why you're really here, chief."

Sheepish grin came and went. Given his own reaction when he'd first seen her after two years, speculating over how another would react seemed less than useless. He'd always been more comfortable talking about machines. He knew her well enough to know she was missing someone. She had tells, too. As sure as she could read him, he could her. Since she was small enough to ride the broad back of the man he'd been, back on Mindoir. Before they'd both lost everyone else.

"Ah'll find 'm right enough. And bring 'm back, one way er t'other."

He had nothing more he could say right now, it wasn't the time. The thumping shudder of landfall meant they were out and spreading into the Collector-infested darkness, silent. He had one more thought, directed back at the Normandy.

 ...Mordin, you'd better be the very model of a salarian wizard....got half a colony to go, this countermeasure better work....

He was careful, scanning, ducking, his weapon ready but never fired. To not engage was the idea.

Mordin's thing did work. He was invisible to the seekers, could move past them without setting off the nasty buggy little motion sensors. But he never realized that there could be something worse to see than a swarm aimed at him. Bodies everywhere, alive, frightened, but stilled. The slightest twitch would cause a babysitting seeker to twitch in time, obviously giving another sting. He had to blink back tears.

...Damn me, so wish I could take all of you...but I'm only one...

 It came as a shock to think that it might have been this way on Mindoir. That being there might have been futile - he couldn't keep that train of thought or he might be as paralyzed as these. He had a promise to keep, an old promise.

 It didn't take long to find the last tower they had got telemetry from. Less time to find the body he was looking for, less than that to use the suit mounted omnitool to fry the couple crawling seekers who were blind to him. Sharp eyes had already sussed out cover, and he dragged the body into it. A culvert, barely big enough for the two of them, mostly covered by debris.

He'd been too lucky. But so had this one. But now he had to speak. Get him recovered. And get him out of here. Chances are he was out of luck, and functioning on "miracle". And it didn't look like there was much of a supply here.

"Commander Alenko, sir. Have an antidote for ye. Ah'll be administering - dam'me, tha looks like it hurts." He shoved a gloved knuckle into the man's mouth to stifle a might-be scream, and kept up a whispered patter to try to ease the man's mind. "Name's Aillig. Aillig Micheil Bannock. This bit o'seeker repellent should do it. Don't know how it works, but ah ain't been stung yet."

"How...what happened, what's going on out there? The collectors - "

"Easy up, sir. They be collectin', right enough. We be staying here till they pass, all invisible-like."

 A gurgling cry was suddenly stilled. One of many , yet this one had an electrical effect on the sentinel. Alenko pulled himself out of the culvert despite Bannock desperately trying to hold him back.

"Lilith!"

"Sir, nah, Nah, stop, will 'ye! It's but the two of us, and all a 'them - "

The flare of blue energy swirled around them, brighter than the engineer had ever seen. Out of the culvert, giving up trying to wrestle the man back into what was now not cover but a beacon. He stood slack-jawed a moment, til the order came to "Run!"

 He didn't need to be told again. Outranked, and with the Collector-lure which was now his only protection, growing, moving. He moved with it. He wasn't daft.

The trip was shorter. No need to sneak when you were the brightest damn thing on the battlefield. Collectors went flying, husks shredded and all manner of beasties hit the barrier and bounced off like hailstones and boulders.

He was stunned that one man could do this, that it was even possible. He dared not say a word, or leave Alenko's side. He knew that this kind of power had to drain a man fierce, and both their lives were forfeit if the power failed.

 Which it did, just then, at the edge of a firefight beyond which was their only safety. Bannock nearly collided with the stricken biotic, whose face was a rictus of agony as he suddenly clasped both hands against the back of his neck as the barrier fizzled into nothing. The bright actinic weaponsfire and all-spectrum noise took heavy toll, and the engineer and Kaidan himself bringing their own weapons to bear wasn't helping.

 "Drones away." Even as he said it he knew it wouldn't be enough. He turned to the man, grinned, pretty sure it was the last thing he would ever say. "Been a pure pleasure servin' 'wit ye, sir."

 The heavy impact against his leg didn't even startle him, nor did his inability to move surprise him. This was going to be the way of it, then.

 He didn't even feel the grab and pull of hands yanking him into the transport.

 "Commander Alenko's in! All crew alive and accounted for! Prepare for -

"The towers are online! The Collectors are bugging out!"

They say the ears are the last to go. The last thing Bannock remembered was the raucous cheering of a much needed victory.

And knowing that the man he saved, had saved him and others, was a sweet thought indeed, to go to sleep to.


End file.
